Just out of curiosity has anybody gotten into solar electricity? I bought a kit from Harbor Frieght this past summer and have made quite a hobby out of it. I started with a 45 watt panel and am getting ready to buy a 160 watt and upgrade my batteries and charge controller.

delbert

08-23-2012 06:50 PM

No i don't, but i do have a lot of interest in free power

buckfever

08-23-2012 09:17 PM

Same here delbert! I have a lot of interest in it but need to learn more about it.

I am kicking myself for not "learning" on my barn. I would have not needed a lot of juice to run the light bulbs that rarely get turned on. Instead I spend $300 to wire it from my house. Rent a stinkin trencher and fight it all day.

How is it working out for you buckshot?

Hunting Man

08-23-2012 10:12 PM

The cabin I just rented in Canada used solar panels to power their fresh water system. Worked very well. The batteries looked highly expensive!

steelslinger

08-23-2012 10:15 PM

I have looked into it but the cost is too high. Basically, to recover my investment at current prices, my grand kids might benefit about the time they retire depending on the number of hail storms and cost of energy at that point. I do however have a system for my woods truck to keep the battery charged.

delbert

08-24-2012 08:10 AM

Ooh don't make me go there
the only way it makes cents is too get obuma to pay more for less

A small unit in a deer stand would be handy for the long days

Buckshot

08-24-2012 01:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by buckfever
(Post 71673)

Same here delbert! I have a lot of interest in it but need to learn more about it.

I am kicking myself for not "learning" on my barn. I would have not needed a lot of juice to run the light bulbs that rarely get turned on. Instead I spend $300 to wire it from my house. Rent a stinkin trencher and fight it all day.

How is it working out for you buckshot?

For what I'm doing with it, it works great. 45 Watts is not a lot of power it works out to 4 or 5 Amps which would be considered a trickle charge so i aign't powering the house or anything. I have the system at the dock where it powers the lights, runs the radio and charges the boat batteries.

I have the pannels wired to the charge controler and from the CC to two 12v deep cycle batteries wired in parallel (+to+ and - to-) this keeps 12v but doubles amps. The charge to the boat batteries comes off the CC and I have an 1150 Watt inverter conected to the batteries for 120volt outlet. So far the system has done all I asked with power left over.

Buckshot

08-24-2012 01:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hunting Man
(Post 71677)

The cabin I just rented in Canada used solar panels to power their fresh water system. Worked very well. The batteries looked highly expensive!

I have looked into the 12volt water pumps for the farm. They look great you are right it was very expensive, I think with the batteries, wiring and plumbing it was close to $5,000.

Buckshot

08-24-2012 01:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by steelslinger
(Post 71678)

I have looked into it but the cost is too high. Basically, to recover my investment at current prices, my grand kids might benefit about the time they retire depending on the number of hail storms and cost of energy at that point. I do however have a system for my woods truck to keep the battery charged.

To power up the house would be very expensive, I am working to power a small cabin which I will add pannels and batteries as I can until I get what I need. I know a guy that spent about $100,000 with gvrnmt help and he powers three houses and sells power back to the utillity every month.

buckfever

08-26-2012 08:32 PM

Doing what your doing on your dock makes sense to me. I can justify small jobs like that. For example if I would have done my barn. Could have also used it to trickle charge lawn mower battery, trollin motor battery etc.

Duck river in TN had a new thing where they built the solar field and then sold half panels to customers for $600.00

It only works out to an average of $3-$6 bucks per month in energy savings on your bill each month. Most folks will not go for that. Average 10 yrs to get your money back.

I will have to wait till this stuff decreases in price quite a bit before I will ever be able to make the plunge on a large scale. I would still like to do what your doing buckshot. In the future I am going to redo an outbuilding I have and add some machine sheds to the side of it. I just want to have around 3 light bulbs so I can have some light if I need it. I will go this route to save having to run electricity all the way to it.